As part of 2025 Deeside Nature Festival I led 20 participants on a guided walk up Creag Chòinnich to experience hundreds of millions of years of Earth history in a few hours - continental collision, mountain building, glaciation, river erosion. The walk was accompanied by sounds and music inspired by rivers, ice and granite from local community projects.
Geology and creative arts are united by observation and response to the natural environment (as has been noted by Rob Mackay). So we stressed observation of the ground beneath our feet, looking for changes in slope and examining the character of the rocks themselves. We followed a trail blazed by Stuart Archer during the 2024 festival.
The trail began in Braemar town centre where the Cluny Water dramatically cut through quartzites, the oldest rocks we would see. Going through a gate and uphill into pleasant Scots pine woods, the change of slope reflected a change to younger rocks - although they are thought to still be more than 700 million years old.
A change of bedrock was revealed by a change of slope with steps and rounded exposures of granite. We stopped so I could play a tune and attendees enjoy a Tunnock’s wafer. ‘427 Million Years' by Adam Sutherland was composed as part of a 2019 Braemar music project ‘What a Story This Pair of Boots Could Tell’. The tune was inspired by the age of the granite which forms the Cairngorms (although some geologists may note that published studies suggest a more precise range of 318-419 million years). The evocative tune seems to convey the slow passage of geological time itself.
As we progressed up the hill we could see evidence of the intrusive contact between the granite and host rock in several places. Reaching a high point, a broad panorama was revealed of the valley of the River Dee and the granite ridge of the Cairngorms. Playing back the sound of ‘ice quakes’ from Antarctica through a portable speaker helped us to consider the shaping of the land by thick ice during the past 2 million years. The icequakes are from geophysical recordings of movement of thick ice over bedrock in Antarctica and the sound helped us to visualise kilometres of ice overhead.
Over the past 10 thousand years the most recent changes in the landscape have been from the action of water. Today, the source of the River Dee is high up in the Cairngorms where a spring rises from fractures in the granite, inspiring a Hamish Napier tune ‘The Wells of Dee’. This was composed and recorded as part of a 2021 NE Scotland project ‘Our Living Rivers and Glens’. The project gave people isolated during lockdown the opportunity capture observations from the natural environment, which was posted on a Google Earth map and used as inspiration for new music commissions.
We then headed back downhill as a rainstorm approached from the west.
Despite the potential risks of bringing walking, science and music together in this way, there was good feedback from participants. ‘The music was inspiring and I can see why so many musicians take inspiration from the area. Thank you so much for sharing your passion with us.’
Geological map of the walk
Sketch cross section of the walk (vertical exaggeration x 3.5)
Briefing as we enter the woods
‘427 Million Years’ - granite and Tunnocks
‘The Wells of Dee’ - near the summit
Deeside Nature Festival
https://wild-discovery.com/deeside-nature-festival
Adam Sutherland
http://www.adamsutherland.co.uk/
What a story this pair of boots could tell
http://www.adamsutherland.co.uk/shop/
427 Million Years
https://youtu.be/Caj-4QLi3Bs?si=7rt3N1sdngUwMmlw&t=98
The Song of the Ice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAwHB-yjVGY
Icequakes
https://stevegarrettguitar.bandcamp.com/track/the-song-of-the-ice-icequakes-bonus-track
Our Living Rivers and Glens
https://deedonceilidhcollective.com/our-living-rivers-and-glens
Hamish Napier
https://www.hamishnapier.com/
The Wells of Dee
https://deedonceilidhcollective.com/track/2859073/the-wells-of-dee